Sold Out For Jesus! Text: Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service”

Philippians 3 (NIV) Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh  Sold Out For Jesus!

though I myself have reasons for such confidence though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  Sold Out For Jesus!

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  Sold Out For Jesus!

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. Sold Out For Jesus!

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Sold Out For Jesus!

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.  Sold Out For Jesus!

But our citizenship is in heaven But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Sold Out For Jesus!

1. It was Total Abandonment. 2. It was Total Ambition. Paul was someone who was “sold out for Jesus”. Philippians 3 gives us some of the reasons for this: 1. It was Total Abandonment. 2. It was Total Ambition. 3. It was Total Advancement. 4. It was Total Anticipation. Sold Out For Jesus!

1. Total Abandonment. He moved on from his past, counting his former religious prestige and pedigree nothing but rubbish. (Vs 4-8) Vs 8 “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Sold Out For Jesus!

2. Total Ambition. He looked deep within and confessed his highest priority would always be Christ and his relationship with Him. (Vs 10-13) Vs 10 – “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Sold Out For Jesus!

3. Total Advancement.  He reached out to his future: Vs14 in The Message reads, 'I've got my eye on the goal where God is beckoning us onwards to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.‘ Vs 13 – “…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Sold Out For Jesus!

4. Total Anticipation. He acknowledged his earthly life was already stamped by heaven. It was C.S. Lewis who said, 'The Christians who do most in this world are those who think most about the next!‘ Vs 20 – “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Sold Out For Jesus!